SYDNEY, May 3 (Reuters) – Hawaii’s Pipeline Masters will return as a high-stakes finale for surfing’s world tour in 2026, part of a shake-up unveiled on Saturday that includes the resumption of a Formula One-style cumulative rankings format to determine world champions.
Considered the world’s most dangerous and challenging wave, Pipeline has for decades taken centre-stage at surfing’s spiritual homeland of Hawaii, with season-ending contests there crowning champions including Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina and John John Florence.
In recent years, Pipeline has been the first stop on the championship tour, with a one-day, winner-takes-all contest of the top five surfers held instead in softer waves in Southern California. (The 2025 Finals are being held in Fiji.)
“Pipeline has always held a special place in surfing history, and our fans have made it clear they want to see our sport’s most critical moments unfold there,” said Ryan Crosby, the chief executive of professional governing body, the World Surf League.
The tour’s controversial mid-season cut of one-third of competitors is also being tweaked. All 36 men and 24 women will contest the first nine “regular season” events and return for the 12th and final event at Pipeline.
Stops include Bells Beach in Australia, Jeffreys Bay in South Africa and the 2024 Olympics venue of Teahupo’o in Tahiti. Abu Dhabi’s wave pool and Peniche in Portugal will host the two smaller “post season” events before Pipeline.
Results at Pipeline will be worth 1.5 times standard championship tour events to reflect its elevated status, with world titles determined by a surfer’s best nine results from the April-December tour.
“I’ve never felt anything like the moment I won at Pipeline,” said 2019 world champion Italo Ferreira. “Winning the Olympic gold medal and competing in the WSL Finals were amazing, but nothing in surfing compares to winning the world title at Pipe. I’m so excited for the chance to compete for that feeling again.”
Crosby, giving his first interviews since joining the WSL as CEO a year ago, said the primary focus had been around making Pipeline the finale, which prompted other changes including a return to cumulative points through the season.
“One is the final five format. We didn’t feel good about only having 10 surfers be able to surf Pipe. That felt like a really bad outcome for the sport and a bad outcome for the surfers. And then secondarily, from a permitting standpoint … we couldn’t run a final five format in a Hawaiian event.”
Heading into its 50th year in 2026, professional surfing has experimented with a number of different formats and venues but struggled to broaden its appeal to a wider, non-surfing audience, something Crosby said the WSL was shifting focus on.
“Our goal, and it’s been a bit of a mindset shift, is to really focus on doing what’s right for surfing and doing what’s right for surfers,” Crosby, a keen surfer for more than 20 years, told Reuters. “The belief is focusing on that really engaged audience is the organic growth mechanism to a broader audience.”
2026 WSL Championship Tour locations
– Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia
– Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia
– Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia
– Punta Roca, El Salvador
– Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
– Lower Trestles, California, USA*
– Surf Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
– Pipe Masters, Hawaii, USA**
* End of regular season, start of post-season
** Full championship tour fields rejoin post-season surfers to compete at Pipe Masters (Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul)
